Caroline Butler
CYSE 201S
I reviewed an article from The Journal of Cybersecurity titled “Digital fingerprinting for identifying malicious collusive groups on Twitter”. This article relates to the social science principles through conducting a social media analysis via Twitter, how hackers are using Twitter to spread hostile information, as well as maintaining honesty and decorum throughout the Twitter social media platform. Twitter is an Online Social Network. Online users that use Twitter can interact with other online users, such as following fellow online users, liking a fellow online user’s posts, commenting on a fellow online user’s post, sharing posts between other online users, etc. As a result, this makes Twitter a target for hackers to spread deceitful links containing explicit content as it can increase the likelihood of an online user clicking the link, as well as sharing it to other online users According to the group of authors who wrote this article, “Interaction on most social network platforms means a user can follow other users, like, mention, share, comment on, and click on posts by other users. Microblogging sites such as Twitter are therefore efficient for hackers to spread malicious codes with higher chances of users clicking on these malicious links [2].” (Ikwu et al., 2023). Digital personas, also known as an online user’s account, can play an imperative role on how cyber criminals can escalate their spiteful efforts with spreading information. Cyber criminals can create numerous accounts to spread out and scam unsuspecting online users. Cyber criminals can make up a username and password, resulting in another fake account that a cyber criminal can operate. According to the group of authors who wrote this article, “Digital personas (represented by online accounts) play a critical role in how criminals leverage OSNs to maximize the effects of their malicious efforts. Malicious actors can operate multiple accounts simultaneously, i.e. there can be a single account operated by multiple physical persons or one physical person operating multiple online accounts.” (Ikwu et al., 2023). The purpose of this article is to help maintain honesty and dignity throughout all Online Social Networks by implementing different types of Digital Fingerprints that can be used to help catch cyber criminals, which will be discussed subsequently.
The topic of the article, “Digital fingerprinting for identifying malicious collusive groups on Twitter”, relates to three of the social science principles. The three social science principles are Ethical Neutrality, Determinism, and Objectivity. The first social science principle is Ethical Neutrality. Ethical Neutrality is a social science principle that indicates the idea that social scientists must abide by ethical standards when they are conducting their research. For example, cybersecurity analysts can determine why an account is created on Twitter. An account can be created by an online user, who wants to talk online with their friends and share tweets with each other. The online user is maintaining decorum and being respectful online using Twitter. Another reason why an account is created on Twitter could be unethical. An account can be created by a cyber criminal, who wants to cyberbully others and unsafe links for online users to click on. The questions that social scientists can ask consist of: Why is an account created for Twitter? Is the Twitter account used for good intentions or bad intentions? Can cybersecurity analysts monitor Twitter accounts to make sure that they are adhering to the Twitter guidelines?. The second social science principle is Determinism. Determinism is a social science principle that describes how behavior is determined, caused, or influenced by previous events. For example, a cyber criminal’s behavior for cyberbullying others and through using links that entice online users to click on. This behavior can be influenced from numerous factors, such as a hobby for personal gain, for attention, for monetary gain, etc. The third social science principle is Objectivity. Objectivity is a social science principle that social scientists utilize to remain objective in their research. Examples of this can include: Why do cyber criminals spread deceitful links all over Twitter? What if the link can cause a virus on an individual’s device?.
After reading the article from the Journal of Cybersecurity titled, “Digital fingerprinting for identifying malicious collusive groups on Twitter”, I have come to the conclusion that the research questions that the article was trying to give to readers include: How do cybersecurity analysts catch cyber criminals who are spreading malicious information on Twitter? What is the best way to maintain decorum when using Twitter? How does Twitter ensure that there is integrity and honesty when an individual makes an account? It is crucial that these questions were integrated and addressed in the article because maintaining a respectful image online is just as important as an individual’s respectful image in person. If an innocent online user gets scammed by clicking on a harmful link online using Twitter, Twitter has safeguards and user agreements integrated into the app to help prevent suspicious activity.
The research methods that were presented in the article, “Digital fingerprinting for identifying malicious collusive groups on Twitter”, were different kinds of fingerprints that can be created to help identify numerous cyber criminals accounts that are used to promote deceitful links. The first fingerprint is called “A URL fingerprint”. This fingerprint is used “to identify accounts that use similar tools in creating their attack vector.” (Ikwu et al., 2023). The second fingerprint is called “An account fingerprint”. This fingerprint is used “to identify accounts created with similar account characteristics.” (Ikwu et al., 2023). The third fingerprint is called “A post-content/language fingerprint”. This fingerprint is used “to identify accounts with the same set of people writing posted content or posting similar content.” (Ikwu et al., 2023). The fourth fingerprint is called “An activity fingerprint”. This fingerprint is used “to identify the account with similar interaction patterns between them.” (Ikwu et al., 2023). These fingerprints can help combat cyber criminals and to ensure that Twitter is a safe social media platform to use.
The type of data that was conducted in the article, “Digital fingerprinting for identifying malicious collusive groups on Twitter”, was a Data collection via Twitter. The group of authors would collect data from online users of Twitter that would launch tweets that consisted of hashtags and expressions relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Ikwu et al., 2023). The authors of the article collected data from March 11th, 2020, to March 21st, 2020. (Ikwu et al., 2023). Political and social events at that time were trending on Twitter, which increased interaction between other online users on different social media platforms. This resulted in the likelihood of a deceitful link being retweeted or shared to other Twitter online users. (Ikwu et al., 2023). After the data collection, 80 deceitful links were being shared on Twitter by 109 Twitter online users. (Ikwu et al., 2023). The data was charted on a Line graph.
After reading the article, “Digital fingerprinting for identifying malicious collusive groups on Twitter”, the four concepts from class that relate to the article are Victim Precipitation, Social Science Research Methods (Experiments), Parsimony, and Social Science Disciplines (Psychology). The first concept from class is Victim Precipitation. Victim Precipitation is a theory that means a cyber criminal can single out an individual based on their gender, sexual identity, etc. An example of this would be a cyber criminal targeting a Twitter online user because of their sexual identity. A cyber criminal can target this Twitter online user by putting out a Tweet containing a decietiful link that only the Twitter online user can click on. This can result in the Twitter online user’s device catching a virus and potentially stop working. Another way a cyber criminal can target a Twitter online user is by putting out a demeaning tweet regarding their sexual identity. The second concept from class is Social Science Research Methods (Experiments). Experiments is a Social Science Research method that can be used to conduct an experiment on an issue and collect the necessary data. An example of this would be when the group of authors from the article did an experiment to catch cyber criminals putting out suspicious links. The group of authors collected data from COVID-19 related tweets that contained hashtags and expressions relating to COVID-19. This experiment took place from March 11th, 2020 to March 21st, 2020. The third concept from class is Parsimony. Parsimony is a Social Science Principle that entails scientists should keep their explanation as simple as possible. An example of this would be a cybersecurity analyst trying to figure out why a cyber criminal would create a deceitful link and tweet it on Twitter for an innocent online user to click it. This can result in the online user’s device getting a virus. Although human behavior is complex and there are many reasons for a cyber criminal to commit a cyber crime, it is imperative for cybersecurity analysts to keep their explanations simple, as well as informative. The fourth concept from class is Social Science Disciplines (Psychology). Psychology is a Social Science Discipline that can be used to help explain the complexity of human behavior in cybersecurity. An example of this would be a cyber criminal spreading deceitful links on Twitter. A cyber criminal could do this because of things happening in their personal life that is affecting them mentally. When people get hurt mentally in life, they tend to want to hurt other people. This could be a possibility why cyber criminals commit different cyber crimes in the virtual world.
The topic of the article, “Digital fingerprinting for identifying malicious collusive groups on Twitter”, can raise two concerns for marginalized groups. The two concerns are social media privacy on Twitter and hate speech on Twitter. The first concern is social media privacy on Twitter. It is important to make sure that Twitter online users keep their information confidential so that hackers do not steal their information and distribute it on the internet. This is why Twitter online users make a username and password that is complementary to them and to ensure that hackers cannot access their personal information as well. The second concern is hate speech on Twitter. A cyber criminal’s main purpose is to create suspicious links and to put it out on the internet. It is imperative that there are set guidelines integrated on Twitter that prevent any suspicious tweets from being posted or shared.
The overall societal contributions of the article, “Digital fingerprinting for identifying malicious collusive groups on Twitter”, has brought awareness to cyber criminals targeting online Twitter users. Cyber criminals can target online Twitter users by creating suspicious links for online Twitter users to click on, resulting in their device contracting a virus. Cyber attacks are becoming more prominent on various social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Providing the necessary solutions for combating these cyber attacks on social media platforms will help ensure that an online user will feel safe navigating their social media accounts, as well as navigating the virtual world.
Reference
Ikwu, R., Giommoni, L., Javed, A., Burnap, P., & Williams, M. (2023, August 10). Digital fingerprinting for identifying malicious collusive groups on Twitter,. Journal of Cybersecurity. https://academic.oup.com/cybersecurity/article/9/1/tyad014/7240368?searchresult=1#413691063